Plot counterplot, p.34
Plot/Counterplot, page 34
“Right now I just want to make it out of here alive. I can worry about my love life later.”
Xavier chuckled. “Dylan’s team is on move. Building is quiet. Except for skeleton crew admiral left on patrol. Last guard left building at midnight—but they will reenter from time to time. You need to go.”
“Already searching,” Tolga said, grunting. It was pitch black in here. Fortunately, he’d practiced this many times. He could Braille his way through the entire operation. “You know, this is not my idea of a good time.”
“Rather be back in circus, doing tricks for snot-nosed kids?”
“Good point.” Tolga continued searching. He should be able to find it in a minute or two.
Dylan had gotten at least one thing right. This vault was impossible to break into. But it was considerably less difficult to break out of.
* * *
Dylan wrapped his lips around the regulator mouthpiece and dove.
The Pacific Ocean was cold. He wouldn’t mind that on a sunny day, but this time of night the chill wind blew in and he wished his wet suit were not so wet.Mikala and Felix would be along later, as soon as he found the entrance and made sure the path was clear. They remained separate to minimize the risk if he couldn’t find the entrance or if, God forbid, he should be caught. He couldn’t wait to see the expression on Felix’s face after he’d spent some time in this frigid environment. Not like sitting in a warm van gazing at a laptop screen.
He was making decent progress. None of them had received nearly as much scuba instruction as he would’ve liked. But they didn’t have to swim that far, either. All they had to do was get to the PACOM shore, about eight thousand yards down the beach, without being spotted.
He was surprised at how quicklyMikala and Felix had taken to scuba diving. As far as he could tell, Felix rarely exercised anything other than his fingers. Nonetheless, the kid had performed well. Perhaps this was the start of a new era for the laptop-bound boy. Next time Dylan devised one of these plans, he’d have to come up with an excuse to send Felix bungee jumping.
Except of course, he reminded himself, there would never be another plan. Not after this one.
A few minutes later he reached a point where the land jutted out into the ocean, creating a natural curve. He knew the primary PACOM building was nearby. The blueprints Felix had found online suggested that the entrance he sought was most likely going to be found there.
Dylan flippered in closer. He redirected his head lamp, providing enough illumination to see in considerably greater detail—but not so much that anyone would notice from the land.
He stared at a raised portion of land, an underground ridge. Exposed silt and seaweed, ornamented with spare tires and license plates and other non-biodegradable debris. Not a pretty sight. He much preferred looking at the crystalline blue of the Hawaiian coastal waters. But he was not on a sightseeing expedition.
Something copper-colored glinted to the left. What was it?
Dylan redirected the beam and swam in closer. Some kind of metal bars.
The sewer grate. It was protected by a heavy iron grill that allowed water to flow through—but not much else. Didn’t want the fishies swimming into the pipes.
Dylan pivoted, paddling his arms against the current. He tugged at the grate. It was cemented to the side of the cliff. He wouldn’t be pulling that out with his bare hands.
Fortunately, like any good planner, he’d come prepared.
He opened the flap on his water-resistant bag, reached under his emergency floatation vest, and grabbed the K4.
Chapter 73
12:22 a.m.
3 hours, 38 minutes left
Dylan climbed up an iron rung ladder through the access shaft, with Mikala and Feliz close behind. Once he reached the top, Dylan reached into his pack for the magnasonic screwdriver. Turned out it worked just as well on manhole bolts as it had on university access hatches. A minute later all three of them climbed onto the surface.
They were on PACOM grounds, at the rear coastal side of the building. And as far as Dylan could tell, no one had seen them. Yet.
Dylan assembled the sonic disruption unit. He shoved it into the soft wet ground and pushed it below the surface so it would not be seen. Mr. X’s expert said this would disrupt all sound and motion detectors within a square mile radius, for at least an hour. If you knew what frequency they were using. Which was tricky, because it was reset each day by the admiral. Fortunately, Dylan had figured out where he recorded the daily frequency.
“I tried a radio after we left,” Dylan had explained earlier. “And 88.5 was not a classical music station. The dial on Stewart’s radio was not connected to the tuner. We were listening to a CD. The dial is the admiral’s way of reminding himself what the current frequency is.”
“Wouldn’t it be safer to hide the number in a desk drawer?”Mikala asked. “Or in the vault?”
“He didn’t want to open the vault twice every day. And no, hiding things where enemies expect to find them is not always smarter. The admiral wanted to be clever. It’s called steganography. Hiding in plain sight. Like ‘The Purloined Letter.’”
Dylan activated a spark-gap transmitter to take out the security radios. It wouldn’t prevent the guards inside from talking to one another, but it would make it impossible for them to reach anyone on the outside, should they have occasion to try. If Dylan or his friends were discovered.
He used a grapple gun to shoot a silken cord up to the second floor. Then he reached into his pack, withdrew a mechanical belay lock, and snapped it onto the line.
“Everyone remember how the repelling lessons went?”
“Hope so,” Xavier growled. “Because you have two minutes till guards reappear. Then you’re blowfish.”
Chapter 74
12:39 a.m.
3 hours, 21 minutes left
Dylan was the last to crawl through the window into the admiral’s office.
“You’re sure the sonics are off?” Mikala asked.
“If they weren’t, we’d have already been arrested. Tolga has deactivated all the vault’s defenses from within. I killed the heat sensor earlier with hair spray. So get to work on the vault.”
Lani had already inserted her forged key card into the slot behind the vault’s RGB keypad. The card was connected by thin computer ribbon to her pocket computer, which was small but more powerful than most of the laptops in the Pentagon. It was capable of generating all the random number and color combinations that could be punched into the keypad at the speed of light. In less than two minutes, it would cover every possible combination.
“Got it,” she said. Dylan heard a clicking sound, and a moment later, she was spinning the handle. The huge steel door swung open.
Tolga spilled out, gasping for air. “Thank God. I was suffocating.”
“You should complain,” Felix said. “Try scuba diving in the dark when—”
“Boys, we don’t have time for this now. We’ll determine who has suffered the most later.” Dylan shone a flashlight into the vault. “The Key should be right...”
Dylan stopped short.
“Yeah,” Tolga said. “I was hoping I missed it because of the darkness.”
Dylan entered the vault, shining his light every which way, pushing and prodding, scanning for hiding places. “It’s not in here.”
“What is going on?” Xavier asked.
“We have a problem. The Key isn’t in the vault.”
“After all this trouble to get in PACOM and open vault, there is no Key?”
“Like I said. Problem.”
“That’s not the only one,”Mikala said, glancing at the door. “We’re about to have company.”
She didn’t have to explain. Dylan could hear the footsteps approach. He closed the dividing door in the acrylic screen and motioned the other three into the vault. He pulled the door not quite closed.
The footsteps stopped outside the outer door.
The guard wiggled the doorknob.
Don’t come in. Don’t come in.
The guard opened the door. Light flooded in from the hallway. Through the crack in the vault door, Dylan saw a medium-height, stocky man wearing an MP uniform enter.
Dylan held his breath and tried to be quieter than he had ever been in his life.
The guard switched on a flashlight and shone it around the room. Then he opened the dividing door and eyed the vault. The flashlight beam passed over the window they’d crawled through—then stopped. Dylan knew why.
There was water on the floor. They tracked it in when they came through.
The guard stepped in and took a closer look.
He pulled out his gun. “Is someone in here?”
He swept his flashlight around. “No point trying to hide. I got three buddies in this wing. You’re not going anywhere.”
His flashlight shone on the vault door. “Hands up in the air!” The guard thrust his gun forward, then reached for the radio on his shoulder.
Dylan knew that if he waited one more second, the guard would call his friends and there would be no way out. He pushed open the vault door and came out swinging. The guard stepped aside just in time to miss the door and Dylan’s fist.
Dylan had no idea what to do next, but the most urgent problem was that gun. He didn’t have time to get into his pack—so he slammed it down on the guard’s wrist. The gun clattered to the floor.
The guard lurched forward, throwing a punch. Dylan managed to dodge it, but before he could throw one of his own the guard brought his other arm around and drilled it into Dylan’s stomach. He fell backward, closing the vault door.
The rest of the team could not get out. Dylan was on his own.
The guard hit him again. Dylan fell to his knees. He was still woozy from his near-asphyxiation and in no condition to be taking on someone twice his size and combat-trained. He tried to push himself up but before he could, the guard hit him in the chin, sending him tumbling back again.
“Stay down!” the guard bellowed, and Dylan thought that would be good advice under any other circumstances. But here it was a death sentence. He struggled back to his knees, his mouth bleeding. The guard grabbed him by the throat.
Once again, his lungs craved air. He choked, his stomach convulsing. Got to get into that backpack...
Dylan tried to throw a punch, but it didn’t have much impact. The guard tossed him back, kicking him in the stomach for good measure.
Through blurry eyes, Dylan saw the MP scrambling for his gun. That could not happen. He grabbed the man’s leg and yanked on it, hauling him back.
“Would you give it up already?” The MP kicked backward, clubbing Dylan on the forehead. Dylan hit the floor hard. The MP, obviously angry, launched another kick into Dylan’s groin. Dylan rolled sideways—and used the moment of freedom to get into his pack.
He pulled out the taser and diving forward, pressed it against the guard’s chest.
The MP spasmed uncontrollably as the full brunt of 100,000 volts rippled through his body. He flailed back and forth, unable to control himself. Dylan knew that after about ten seconds of this punishment, he should black out. He did, though it took almost twenty. Tough guard.
When he was sure the MP was unconscious, Dylan opened the vault.
Felix rushed forward. “Jeez, that sounded intense. Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” Dylan pressed his hands against his abdomen. He was in serious pain, but it would pass. He took a step toward the door, which turned out to be more of a lurch. He was taking way more punishment from this operation than he’d intended. And that was a problem, because he was going to need every ounce of strength for the grand finale.
He locked the outside door. That should prevent anyone else from entering. At least for a few seconds.
“Tolga, tie the guard up and gag him. Felix, start hacking into the secured files on the admiral’s desktop computer.Mikala—help me search. Apparently the vault was a red herring, but I’m confident that Key is in this office somewhere. We’ve got to find it. Before it’s too late.”
* * *
Xavier listened carefully to everything that happened on the other end of the audio link. They weren’t doing a good job of narrating, but he got the general idea. And he was impressed. Dylan in hand-to-hand combat? When that guard walked in, Xavier was sure this game was over.
Dylan might make it to Phase Two.
Even if Dylan had no idea what it really would be. Even if Dylan knew nothing about certain parts of Xavier’s plan.
Chapter 75
1:04 a.m.
2 hours, fifty-six minutes left
“It isn’t here?” Dylan asked.
“Nowhere,”Mikala replied.
“You’re sure?”
“Positive. Searched every nook and cranny.”
Felix cut in. “I’m not having any luck on this computer, either.”
“You’re supposed to be an expert hacker.”
“My hacking is fine. There’s just nothing here that relates to the location of the Key.”
Dylan paced around the office. He was all too aware that the sonic dampener would not protect them forever. Neither would the spark-gap transmitter.
He saw the admiral’s radio, the one that had given him the clue to the frequenCy. The admiral liked hiding in plain sight. He had this huge vault nearby, but he chose to record the frequenCy on a radio behind his desk. Because any thief or terrorist would be looking at the vault.
Misdirection.
And he favored hiding in plain sight...
Dylan pulled out the desk drawers but found nothing useful. He removed them from the desk, checking for secret compartments. He found none. He went through the files in the credenza, without success.
“Come on,” Tolga said. “We’ve got to get out of here.”
“Not without the Key.” He noticed a tall bookcase against the far wall.
He approached slowly, squinting in the darkness to read the spines. Mostly thrillers, Tom ClanCy and Clive Cussler and a little Lee Child. Macho stuff. Man’s man books.
With one exception.
The Diary of Anne Frank?
What was it the admiral had said? It was his favorite book when he was younger. He still can’t read it without tearing up.
Which, Dylan supposed, demonstrated that no character was one-dimensional, no matter how much people tried to squeeze them into cliché compartments.
He tried to remember everything he could about Anne Frank. He’d read the book in high school, not since. Saw Natalie Portman do the part on Broadway. Nazis. Genocide. Persecution. The secret annex.
Something clicked. The secret annex was hidden by a false bookshelf. One that disguised a door, that made a door look like a wall, so no one would guess there was an attic on the other side.
He tugged at the bookshelf. He felt it give slightly, but it didn’t leave the wall. Something held it fast.
He knew he was getting close. What was the solution? Think!
The admiral also mentioned his fondness for Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein. Which Dylan remembered much better than Anne Frank.
The main gag in that movie, repeated over and over again, was secret doorways. Hidden passages. Revolving bookshelves.
Dylan tugged at the Anne Frank volume on the top shelf. He felt a spring release.
The bookshelf swung away from the wall.
“You found it!”Mikala cried.
Dylan pulled the bookshelf open.
There was a small safe inside. With an alphanumeric keypad.
“This seems too simple for something so important.”
“No, it’s brilliant. He created all these obvious safeguards to divert attention, while he hid the Key in the last place most people would think to look.”
“Is there some way to know what the combination is?” he asked.
“Not unless you’re the one who programmed it,”Mikala replied.
“Some kind of...default setting?”
“No.”
“Can you use your computer card?”
“No. The safe doesn’t have a digital reader. Ironically, its simplicity makes it more secure. From us, anyway.”
“So it’s hopeless?”
“I didn’t say that.” She scrutinized the safe. “Yes. I thought this was my model. The last iteration. I designed this baby.”
“And?”
Her eyebrows danced. “Back door.”
“I’m assuming this isn’t a sexual proposition.”
“The security protocol has a back door. I programmed the device to respond to a secret code that even the buyers wouldn’t know about.”
“Do you hear those footsteps upstairs?” Tolga stared at his wristwatch. “The interior patrol is early.”
Lani stared at the keypad. “I think...”
“Thirty seconds, people! I can hear him coming down the stairs!”
She began pushing buttons.
“I assume you programmed the back door in case someone forgot their password.”
Lani focused on the keypad. “Mostly so we’d have a way to retaliate if they didn’t pay their bill.”
“Ten seconds,” Tolga announced.
“You remember the combination?”
“Of course I do. It’s my birthday, plus fourteen other digits. You want to enter it?”
“Just do it!”
She did. The green light came on. Dylan opened the safe.
The Key was about a foot long, two inches wide, and Cylindrical, like a high-tech rolling pin. The ridged exterior was designed to slide into the targeting computer and feed equations into the mainframe.
Dylan placed the Key tenderly inside his bag. “Let’s get out of here.”
He motioned everyone toward the window.
They’d barely taken a step when he heard pounding on the outer door.
“This is Security. Open up. Now!”
Chapter 76
1:15 a.m.
2 hours, 45 minutes left
Dylan could see a silhouette on the other side of the door. Another MP.He’d been fortunate once. He couldn’t count on overpowering another MP. And besides, his companions had fulfilled their roles.
